Amnesia in '50 First Dates'

Except for my post on Twilight, readers of this blog seem to prefer when I write about older movies, like A Clockwork Orange or Remember the Titans. So today I’m going to analyze a movie that’s a bit older, and my first “romantic comedy” film – 50 First Dates, starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. The basic plot of the film revolves around Barrymore’s character, who has a form of amnesia that the film describes as “loss of her short-term memory.” As a result, her memory only lasts one day; as soon as she falls asleep, her brain “reboots” back to the day the amnesia began. Sandler’s character falls for her, but must continually introduce himself over and over, thus making each of their “dates” their “first date,” essentially. So, what about this movie is valid, and what is total Hollywood hogwash? Let’s start with the hogwash.

Parts of the Film that are Total Crap…

… I mean, besides Sandler’s juvenile humor and Rob Schneider’s typically racist character. In terms of psychology, some parts of the film are simply not accurate portrayals of amnesia. First, Barrymore’s character has a brother and a father who look after her every day and spend their lives helping her live the delusion that time has stopped. They go through elaborate schemes to “trick” her into avoiding the reality of her condition. Most amnesia patients don’t have this luxury, or family members who can stop their own lives to devote all of their time exclusively to the patient.

Second, Barrymore’s character supposedly has a form of amnesia called “Goldfield’s Syndrome.” This is totally made up by, apparently, the film’s writers and/or director. There’s no such thing as Goldfield’s Syndrome. The fake term annoys me, as there really is a form of amnesia that exactly matches Barrymore’s character. So why didn’t they just call her condition what it’s really called, which would be “anterograde amnesia” (see below)?

These points aside, however, the movie did actually contain quite a bit of validity on other points, relevant to psychology.

Parts of the Film that Were Surprisingly Correct

As mentioned above, there really is a condition called “anterograde amnesia” which pretty closely matches the situation portrayed in the film. With anterograde amnesia, it’s typically caused when a person has some kind of brain damage, most often to the hippocampus region (a portion of the brain at least partially responsible for the storage of memory). In the film, Barrymore’s character has permanent brain damage due to a car accident. When people have this condition, they really are, essentially, “stuck in time.” Their brains are able to encode new memories and store those memories, but the memories are made inaccessible to that person. In other words, the person doesn’t realize that the memories exist. He or she will perpetually believe that it’s the day when the amnesia started, just like in the film.

Another reality portrayed in the film is that most people who have severe amnesia are forced to live in a hospital setting. There, the patients can be closely monitored and protected. You can imagine how stressful it would be to have a condition such as anterograde amnesia, and how confusing the world might become. Any new invention would scare you, as would your own reflection in the mirror as time continued to pass.

One of the film’s funnier moments, which also happens to be accurate, is the character nicknamed “10 Second Tom.” While Barrymore’s character can remember new events for a total of one day before “rebooting,” the character Tom can, of course, only remember new events for 10 seconds. This is also accurate. The type and extent of brain damage causing anterograde amnesia can vary, which leads to large discrepancies between individuals for how long memories can stick before fading away. If it seems like 10 seconds is ludicrous, I assure the readers that this point is, unfortunately, very real. Perhaps one of the most famous amnesia patients is an English man named Clive Wearing, who could essentially only remember things for 7 seconds. Because the film is a comedy we see the “lighter side” of anterograde amnesia. However, the actual condition is extremely hard on the patient and his or her entire family. In Clive Wearing’s case, his children chose to stop visiting him as he aged, because he did not recognize them or acknowledge any of their past visits. They came to the realization that visits were stressful and unhappy memories for them, but had no long-term effect on their father at all. So why keep going through that pain, over and over?

But What About that Hollywood Film Ending?

The final point I’d like to make about the surprising validity in this fairly stupid movie is relevant to the end (spoiler alert!). Sandler’s character first decides that he should give up the relationship, as Barrymore’s character can never truly love him. However, after he leaves she shows that somewhere in her mind, her feelings for him have “sunk in” because she continually paints pictures of him, even though she doesn’t recognize who he is. This seems like a really fake, cheesy end to the movie.

While it is, admittedly, super cheesy, there is actual validity to this ending. I said before that with anterograde amnesia, new memories are in fact being encoded and stored in the brain; the problem is that the patient can’t access those memories. However, we know that amnesia patients can still be affected by these memories, in surprising and interesting ways.

For example, Clive Wearing didn’t recognize his children. However, he did continue to recognize his wife, in spite of her aging twenty or thirty years. And he never showed surprise that she had aged when she visited. He never showed surprise when he looked in the mirror and saw that he had become an old man. Note, when his condition was new this was not the case. Wearing was continually angry, scared, and forlorn. However, years into his condition, he seemed to kind of “get used to it.”

Wearing was told by his amnesia doctors that he should keep a journal of his thoughts. When asked about the journal, he denied that it existed. However, he knew where it was kept. Perhaps the most amazing part of Wearing’s case is that he could be interviewed and answer questions about what it was like to have anterograde amnesia. If he had anterograde amnesia, how the heck did he even know that he had it?? And how could he remember what it was like to live with the condition? Yet, in spite of the irony of his case, Wearing could describe his life. It was depressing, but it was real.

So back to the movie – could Barrymore’s character somehow, unconsciously, remember Sandler’s character and her feelings for him? Surprisingly, the answer appears to be yes. Sure, it’s super cheesy and the film is pretty bad, all things considered. But the portrayal of anterograde amnesia is actually not horribly wrong.

Haven't seen 50 First Dates, but its treatment of amnesia sounds like a documentary study compared to The Majestic. Jim Carrey shows no signs of dementia (well, in this movie at least), or short-term memory loss. He has no problem playing the old piano tunes he loved. He's forgotten his identity and absolutely nothing else. Of course this movie also wants me to believe that if you drive a car off a pier into the ocean, the car will float with the current for 100 miles and eventually wash up on the beach.

It's been a long time since I saw The Majestic, and I think I ironically forgot most of it (on purpose). I remember that it was, as you say, horrible. In the future I plan to write a post on Memento, which is totally awesome in almost every possible way. Thanks for the response.

I saw this movie and I too thought it was cheesy but it is a cute kind of cheesy. The thing that bothers me about your review is that you say the movie is horrible, but it seems to do more things right (however unfeasible the application may seem) than wrong.

If your two points that you call total crap are that it is unlikely that a brother and a father would trick their sister/daughter and that they called a disease something other than its actual name, I would say that the movie has done quite well.

My sister had a traumatic brain injury in 1998. I remember the officers coming to the door, the look in their eyes told my father and I that they did not think my sister was going to survive the accident. I was only 16 at the time, but I would have done anything to make my sister feel better.

If that meant that my father and I would have to trick her to replay a day over and over again, we would have. It may have been unlikely that my father and I would have been able to do that, but perhaps some people that can afford to live on Hawaii might have that luxury.

After you pointed those issues out you went on to address many other issues that turned out to be accurate. Sometimes sad but also accurate.

Dan Akroyd's character serves to explain not only to Sandler but also her brother and father that what they are all doing is not best for Lucy, and that she belongs at the hospital, saying, "everybody wants to believe Lucy is going to get better, but it is not going to happen". That would show that you aren't the only one that feels that the brother and father can not spend their lives doing what they are doing, but it is going to be hard for her family members to let her go.

Sorry that you got hung up on the name of the disease, but based on your article I would say that the movie is at least worth seeing for its accuracies.

The movie is cheesy, but it has a soft, warm, and loving feel to it. If that is its biggest flaw, I'd say it is an okay movie.

I was looking up the condition from the movie while curling up with my wife on the couch, as we wanted to see if it was genuine. I agree with both of you, I believe. James - this was the first movie I saw with my wife, so it has some sentimental value to me, as well. However, I do enjoy the cute/childish/raunchy humor and dialog, and I like several Adam Sandler movies (not all, by any means) for that same reason. I'm an intelligent person by conventional testing methods, even genius by IQ score, and I know other intelligent people that have similar a similar sense of humor. I believe it is probably as much the annoying inaccuracies from her specialty that bother the doc as it is the differences in sense of humor. I can relate in terms of tennis, as I couldn't continue watching the movie "Wimbledon" even if it would have been a quality flick. The tennis was so terribly faked that it made me ill as a good tennis player.

Doctor: ...The condition has come to be known as 'Goldfield syndrome'
Henry: Who's Goldfield?
Doctor: A brilliant Lithuanian psychiatrist, he himself suffered temporal lobe damage. It took home four years to publish his findings because he had to keep starting over from scratch.
Lucy: (laughs)
Doctor: Obviously your sense of humour is still intact.

First, thanks for your thoughtful post. I think it's extremely admirable that you are so caring for your sister! I would like to think that I would do the same for any of my brothers, but I haven't been put in that situation, so I don't know.

You are right that I acknowledge that much of the "psychology" of this movie is actually pretty accurate! My personal opinion of the movie is more about how I found the dialogue pretty cheesy and that I just don't like Adam Sandler (I find him annoying). So yes, I don't like this movie, but it's for more personal reasons that academic ones. Therefore, people with different personal taste than mine are certainly more likely to enjoy it.

I took a class a couple of semesters ago with someone who couldn't remember anything that happened the previous day. He knew what was going on, was constantly writing everything down, but said he couldn't remember anything from the previous day. After reading your article, I don't know how that works, because he obviously knew what has happened to him. Are there forms of this memory loss that don't affect every new memory that you make?

Thanks for your question. I would definitely have to know more about this case to give you an accurate answer. It sounds very confusing. How did this person know what classes to attend? While some people with anterograde amnesia can, in fact, realize their problem and have some level of awareness (for a good example, look up Clive Wearing on YouTube or Google), his case honestly sounds more like a creative excuse to not do well in classes. Of course, as I said before, I can't make any kind of actual assessment without knowing more.

I just finished watching 50 First Dates and while watching decided to look up "Goldfield's Syndrome" to see if there was any truth to it. (not surprised to learn there isn't)

It is interesting that the movie is actually very accurate. I did not think that it was possible the first time I watched it. But I have been learning more about anterograde amnesia recently and understand it better now. I started reading about it because of my own memory problems. Though I don't have amnesia, I do tend to lose things when I go to sleep. I have to write myself reminder notes and leave them where I am sure I will see them, sometimes even writing them on my arm. I am often confused when I wake up in the morning, having to stop and think about why I set my alarm, what day it is, if I have to go to work etc. And if someone asks me to do something the next day I have to be sure to write it down or I will not remember that they asked me to do something. But that is mostly due to an attention deficit. I always tell people to make sure that they have my attention before they tell me things but it is hard for them to know since I will respond to everything they say as if I actually am listening then later have no memory of the conversation.

I like this movie and think it's one of Adam Sandler's best. It's cheesy,but it's supposed to be. I understand that he can be hard to take and there are parts of the movie that make me cringe. But like all of his movies there is an underlying warmth and sweetness that makes the crude and juvenile humour bearable. And as for the unrealistic efforts of the father and brother, it is possible, if not plausible, and it is necessary to make the plot work. A movie about a girl with amnesia who lives in a hospital would not be very interesting and would severely limit the plot development.

Thanks for your interesting response! I agree -- this is one of Adam Sandler's best movies, and he does have an underlying sweetness that makes him appealing. And of course, the movie could have have been a very successful romantic comedy without some unrealistic aspects (at least, not when the topic was anterograde amnesia).

Your personal experiences are very interesting! The mention of writing things on your arm made me instantly think of a truly excellent movie called "Memento." In this film, the protagonist also has anterograde amnesia, and he resorts to tattooing his body to remember essential things. Note - I'm not suggesting that for you! But you might want to check out the film if you haven't already seen it.

It's a MOVIE. Chill out, if people wanted to learn about amnesia they probably wouldn't be going to a goofy Adam Sandler movie. You don't like it? DON'T FUCKING WATCH IT THEN. It's really not rocket science. Again, if someone wanted to learn about brain disorders they'd watch a documentary on brain disorders. This is not that!!!!! So let people that enjoy the movie enjoy it for what it is - an unthinking, uncaring, care-free laugh a minute movie that doesn't try or need to be accurate about a brain disorder. SUCKAS

It's a BLOG POST ABOUT A STUPID MOVIE. You don't like it? DON'T READ IT.

I'm just trying to say, perhaps you should take your own advice and "chill out." Seriously, the point of the blog is to talk about whether movies accurately show psychological principles. So I sorta have to point out when the movie does or doesn't. If you don't care, why even read the blog? Your post seems ironically critical. :) ALL of my blog posts are about movies. So....

Hi, I'm Amir from Iran. I just read your post and I wanted to say thank you. It was very helpful for me, unlike Gordon, when I saw this movie like 10 years ago I searched if this anterograde amnesia is real but as you said it, It wasn't a real name so I couldn't find anything. I recently saw (Before I Go to Sleep) & I searched again & I find your Blog. I hope you see it too cause I loved it like Memento. Wish You the BEST where ever you are.

My wife, a Master's in Nursing candidate, and myself (college educated, but not in the medical industry) love the movie 50 First Dates, as we did the other Sandler/Barrymore movie The Wedding Singer (hopefully you liked that movie, it's one of the best romantic comedies of my generation). So after watching 50 First Dates for perhaps the 50th time, my wife and I wondered if Goldfield's Syndrome was a real thing. Your blog was one of the first entries that came up in my search, and I was very glad to find it and read that Goldfield's Syndrome is a fabrication, but that Anterograde Amnesia is a real thing and that "Lucy" could be something that actually occurs.

Hi Jason and Samantha - thanks so much for reading and for posting a comment. I do like "The Wedding Singer," so we agree on that! And don't get me wrong, I did laugh several times during "50 First Dates." I'm glad you and your wife enjoyed the post. You should also check out "Memento," another movie about anterograde amnesia. Samantha - good luck getting through grad school!

I thought that your analysis of amenesia was quite interesting and illumintating. On the other hand, it is a shame that you take a romantic comedy so seriously. First, it is funny, tender and entertaining, which is really the goal. Second, while laughing at some of the consequences of brain trauma in a way, it also offers to the public some insights in a comical fashion thereby increasing the empathy to those who might have that trauma or to deal with it.
So lighten up and appreciate it for the successes and the fact that it is hard not to be touched when Lucy finds she is a mother again every day.

Hi Adam - I'm glad you enjoy the movie. My job is not to say whether it has value for entertainment, but to comment on the accuracy for psychology. I just don't like Adam Sandler movies - but we don't have to agree. Thanks for reading and for posting.

Hello, you! I kind of have a question for you.
I am currently writing a novel about a men who happens to have Anterograde Amnesia, and the plot is kind of similar to this movie, except the part of the romance. And I wanted to know why would you say that it is 'impossible' for a family to do what Lucy's father and brother did for her. I mean, leave the "because it's expensive" and the "it's not good for her" excuse out. Let's just pretend the family is disgustingly whealty and the patient has shown sings of improvement somehow. Like you said with Mr. Wearing, it's like he got used to this whole lifestyle. I just want to know why 'it's not okay' to do that. And, even if it's the stupidest question you got this month, I need to have an answer before I explode.

P.S: I just have to say I loved the movie, when I first watched it I was 12 and it was one of the first movies to ever get to my soft side. And I don't know why everybody says Adam Sandler sucks, but I love him. Now you know what kind of sick person I am.

Thanks for reading and for posting a question. You've already raised the biggest issue, which is simply money and pragmatics of the situation. But, ok, let's assume that the family are billionaires and are devoted to helping the person with amnesia through this kind of "trickery." Certainly this could only be a short-term fix. People age, people get hair cuts, people buy new clothes, things around the house change, the weather changes, etc. Even if a family could pull this off in some kind of tropical compound where everything is carefully controlled, it could only last a few years at most, because eventually everyone involved would age to the point of confusion. Still - it should make for a good novel! Good luck with your writing.

I ended up here after watching the 2014 movie "Before I Go to Sleep," with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. Nicole plays a woman with the same condition as Drew Barrymore's character in "50 First Dates," but this is a thriller (and very good).

My husband wanted to know if this condition was real -- I had read of real-life cases, and to prove that it was real, I ended up here. It's great to have this blog to provide the actual clinical name of the condition and how it works.

Thanks for explaining how real (but rare, I hope!) this form of amnesia is.

I watched this movie last night and suspended my disbelief enough to enjoy it. The story was actually very sweet. However, one thing at the end that disturbed me very much was the fact that she had a daughter. I can accept how she is able to remind herself every morning that she has a husband along with the rest of her story since the accident. But I cannot imagine the horror of waking up pregnant out of nowhere day after day. And what about the birth? I would hope they just put her under and performed a C-section when it was time instead of letting her go through labor suddenly without knowing she was even pregnant.

Finally, the poor child herself. While everyone else are adults who can understand the situation and her husband chose to involve himself, how painful and confusing must it be for an innocent little girl to have her own mother not remember her. Having a child is not a decision to be made in a day, yet that would have been the only way for her to do it. I don't think that's fair at all. This part of the story left a bitter taste in my mouth after the end of the movie.